


When the Sunset Shifts

by nouveaux_jours



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: ALL THE GOOD STUFF, Grief, M/M, Missing Scene, gear shifting, hand holding, the greenmantle job
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-07
Updated: 2016-02-07
Packaged: 2018-05-18 18:36:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5938827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nouveaux_jours/pseuds/nouveaux_jours
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The door clacked shut as Gansey disappeared inside. Adam stared down at his hands. A ripple of guilt washed through him, just enough to push his self-pity aside and make room for Ronan’s grief. He let himself be grateful for the certain knowledge that he could say nothing and be understood.</p><p>Be known.</p><p>-</p><p>Two missing moments from <em>Blue Lily, Lily Blue</em>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When the Sunset Shifts

**Author's Note:**

> I had a bit of a reaction to the following moment:
> 
> “I’m going in,” Gansey said as Ronan sat down on the step beside Adam. As Gansey shut the door behind him, he heard Adam say, “I don’t want to talk,” and Ronan reply, “The fuck would I talk about?” - _Blue Lily, Lily Blue_ , pg. 332
> 
> Originally posted [here](http://thequeenstag.tumblr.com/post/138814084059/im-going-in-gansey-said-as-ronan-sat-down-on).

“I don’t want to talk.”

Ronan’s voice was bleak, but it still managed to convey a challenge. _Give me some credit_. “The fuck would I talk about?”

The door clacked shut as Gansey disappeared inside. Adam stared down at his hands. A ripple of guilt washed through him, just enough to push his self-pity aside and make room for Ronan’s grief. He let himself be grateful for the certain knowledge that he could say nothing and be understood.

Be known.

He suddenly recalled Blue’s shoulder pressed against his in the cavern, how comforting and stabilizing it had been, and was overwhelmed with a desire to touch Ronan. He turned to look at him, unconsciously leaning toward him as he did so. Ronan was watching him with undisguised concern, far enough away that Adam couldn’t simply lean into him. Instead, he leaned into the look on Ronan’s face. He wondered if his own face looked as blasted out and unmoored as he felt.

He felt the tension float between them for a long moment. A request meeting an invitation.

Ronan surged to meet him, a small movement that seemed to require all of both of their bodies. Adam’s face collided with Ronan’s chest and a solid arm encircled him. Ronan brought his other hand to Adam’s shoulder and then, hesitantly, to rest against his face.

“Adam,” he rasped.

Adam’s entire body shook, once, and he replied with a single sob.

He would have liked very much to spend the rest of the day and night in Ronan’s arms, possibly while melting into a puddle of long-overdue tears.

Instead, he waited until Ronan’s shirt had absorbed the few tears that he couldn’t hold back. He steadied himself against Ronan’s heartbeat, then sat up and rubbed a hand across his face. Ronan let him pull away, but let the hand at his waist linger, fingers light as a whisper against the small of his back.

“Let’s get out of here,” Adam said.

“Where do you want to go?”

Adam met Ronan’s eyes. He didn’t usually take requests from passengers. For half a horribly selfish moment, he longed to name some place impossibly distant, to finally escape this town, with Ronan.

But then Ronan sharpened his smile, and Adam knew he realized where they had to go.

“Before it’s too late,” he said.

 ~~

By the time they were driving back from Greenmantle’s farmhouse, the sun was drooping below the horizon, dying the clouds pink and red. Ronan’s _back in an hour. maybe two_ had inspired a series of ignored, increasingly irate messages from Gansey, and Adam was now on the phone with him, going over the plan.

“Don’t bother coming back to town,” Gansey said. “Just meet us at Cabeswater. Is there anything you need from St. Agnes?”

“Your helmet and shit,” said Ronan.

But Gansey thought they were still out at the Barns, getting Ronan’s dream-word. He didn’t know how near they were.

“Already got it,” Adam said, to buy a few more minutes alone with Ronan.

Ronan raised an eyebrow, but nodded. “Wait, give me the phone,” he said, and Adam handed it over.

“Gansey,” he said, “Go in my room. _Yes_ , really.” He described a few more strange imaginary objects he’d created there that might be useful.

Adam watched Ronan, one hand sliding over the wheel with easy confidence. Part of him was still reeling with what they’d just done to Greenmantle, with his certainty that it would work. He could sense the malicious joy vibrating under the surface of Ronan’s skin, eclipsing both his shame and his grief. At least for now.

“Fine, don’t bring it,” he snapped into the phone. “But if you get stung to death _again_ , it’s not because I didn’t dream you a magical fucking mosquito net bodysuit.”

The buzz of Gansey’s voice sounded very annoyed indeed, and Ronan laughed bitterly.

He hung up and chucked the phone rather too hard into the back seat. It bounced several times and disappeared into the floor somewhere. The rural road was deserted. His hand found the gear shift and gripped it hard. He downshifted to fourth and accelerated rapidly, sixty, seventy before he put it back in fifth, clearly intending to carry them through the rest of the BMW’s speedometer.

The jolt in Adam’s stomach was like a memory of touch.

The road hit a curve and Ronan lifted his foot from the accelerator, casting a vaguely apologetic glance at his passenger.

“We should do that more often,” Adam said.

Ronan laughed. “What, frame scummy murder bosses? Or annoy the shit of Gansey?”

“I meant before,” Adam said. “On Blue’s porch.”

Adam watched Ronan work very, very hard to keep both eyes on the road.

“Don’t want to make you cry, Parrish,” he said, but his voice was strangely genuine.

Adam wrapped his hand around Ronan’s wrist.

“I’m not afraid to touch you,” he said.

He slid his fingers against Ronan’s palm. His hand came away from the gear shift, and their fingers traced each other, tingling.

Adam had never thought one shaky intake of breath from Ronan Lynch would make him blush so hard.

“Fucking hell,” he said softly.

Ronan smirked, his eyes still dead ahead. “Mouth on you,” he muttered.

Ronan’s foot was heavy on the accelerator again, and they were speeding through dense trees, fast approaching town. Adam clasped his hand tightly. He felt Ronan’s speeding pulse against his wrist, closed his eyes and let their heartbeats meld together. His mind raced over all the strange things they had done together, the things they were about to do, the things they knew.

“You know me,” he whispered, even softer.

“Yeah,” said Ronan. “I know you.”


End file.
